It’s getting down to crunch time in the Florida High School playoffs as the small schools are in the semifinals and the large classifications are in the quarterfinals.<\/p>\n
On Friday I covered a better-than-expected Class 3A quarterfinal between Clearwater Central Catholic and Sarasota Cardinal Mooney. CCC came in with the No. 1 ranking but Cardinal Mooney was tough at home. The Cougars took an early 7-0 lead and had the ball in the game’s final minute with a 4th-and-2 on CCC’s 8 yard line. The final play call, a backside post, was perfectly executed and had CCC fooled but the tight end failed to catch the ball and the Marauders held on for a 14-10 victory.<\/p>\n
But CCC’s victory didn’t come without a cost as quarterback Jeff Smith appeared to suffer a broken ankle and will be out for the remainder of the playoffs. Smith will likely be the Class 3A Player of the Year and the Boston College commitment was responsible for the majority of the Marauders offense over the last two seasons.<\/p>\n
CCC will now go with backup QB Jakob Parks (6-3, 180), a sophomore that won’t be able to run the read option offense that Smith made so explosive. Parks will look to his backfield of sophomore running backs C.J. Cotman (5-10, 175) and Jervon Newton (5-10, 180) and senior fullback Scott DePergola (5-8, 185). Both of the sophomores running backs are potential FBS prospects and it’ll be interesting to see how much responsibility they get without Smith in the huddle.<\/p>\n
Around the State — Cocoa Tops Clewiston: Super sophomore QB Bruce Judson threw for two touchdowns and ran for another one as Cocoa held off Clewiston, 26-21, and will now face Booker T. Washington for the fourth straight year in the Class 4A semifinal. Booker T has a 38-game win streak and has beaten Cocoa all three years they faced. However, this Cocoa team with Judson, Jamel Dean (Ohio State commit), and top junior Chauncey Gardner is best equipped to match Booker T.’s speed.<\/p>\n — Manatees Goes to the Wildcat With Success: Manatee will travel to Orlando to face Dr. Phillips in the Class 8A regional final and they will bring a new wrinkle with them. In Manatee’s 47-28 victory over Vero Beach, the Hurricanes went with the wildcat and gave the ball to junior running back Johnnie Lang. Lang rushed for 208 yards out of the formation and his backfield mate, junior Octavious James, rushed for 174 yards. Manatee has one of the top offensive lines around led by senior Jake Walker (6-3, 290) and juniors Sam Cuva (6-4. 295) and Luke Stickler (6-2, 240).<\/p>\n The full state of Friday’s games are as follows:<\/p>\n Class A Class 2A Class 3A Class 4A Class 5A Class 6A Class 7A Class 8A It’s getting down to crunch time in the Florida High School playoffs as the small schools are in the semifinals and the large classifications are in the quarterfinals. On Friday I covered a better-than-expected Class 3A quarterfinal between Clearwater Central Catholic and Sarasota Cardinal Mooney. CCC came in with the No. 1 ranking but Cardinal […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":483,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[23],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/elitescoutingservices.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/471"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/elitescoutingservices.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/elitescoutingservices.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elitescoutingservices.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elitescoutingservices.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=471"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/elitescoutingservices.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/471\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elitescoutingservices.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/483"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/elitescoutingservices.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=471"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elitescoutingservices.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=471"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elitescoutingservices.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=471"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n<\/strong>
\n— Clemson Commits Clash: Ray Ray McCloud (Tampa Sickles) and Deon Cain (Tampa Bay Tech) are two of the top Class of 2015 prospects in the state and both are committed to Clemson. They are longtime friends and members of the highly-regarded Unsigned Preps offseason program. On Friday night they had an old-fashioned playoff duel. Cain, who will likely play wide receiver in college, rushed for 213 yards and passed for 120 yards while scoring all three touchdowns for Tech. McCloud, who could play running back, slot receiver or cornerback in college, rushed for 174 yards and threw a touchdown pass for Sickles. But it was Cain that made the game-winning play — an interception off McCloud in the game’s final minute. Tampa Bay Tech will travel to Kissimmee Osecola in the 7A quarterfinal.<\/p>\n
\nVernon at Port St. Joe
\nHamilton County at Dixie County<\/p>\n
\nNorth Florida Christian at Lakeland Victory
\nIndian Rocks Christian at Glades Day<\/p>\n
\nLakeland Christian at Trinity Christian
\nDelray American Heritage at Clearwater Central Catholic<\/p>\n
\nJacksonville Bolles at Madison County
\nBooker T. Washington at Cocoa<\/p>\n
\nTallahassee Godby at Bishop Kenny
\nSt. Pete Lakewood at Suwannee
\nTampa Jesuit at Orlando Bishop Moore
\nIsland Coast at Plantation American Heritage<\/p>\n
\nJacksonville Ed White at Choctawhatchee
\nGainesville at Seffner Armwood
\nDaytona Beach Mainland at South Fort Myers
\nMiami Central at Palm Bay Heritage<\/p>\n
\nNiceville at Oakleaf
\nTampa Bay Tech at Kissimmee Osceola
\nFort Myers at East Lake
\nRoyal Palm Beach at St. Thomas Aquinas<\/p>\n
\nApopka at Jacksonville First Coast
\nManatee at Orlando Dr. Phillips
\nWellington at Flanagan
\nColumbus at Miami Killian<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"